Best drama may not see a 3rd season

Hal Boedeker, Sentinel Television Critic --
No commercials with talking food. No "breaking news" bulletins. No ridiculous CBS promos linking Walker, Texas Ranger and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Everyone can find advantages to TV-Turnoff Week, which started Monday and concludes Sunday. The do-without-television campaign strives to make viewers, especially children, think about what the medium means to them. Is television consuming too much of your life?

TV-Turnoff Week, however, means no Survivor or ER on Thursday. No chance to see Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in the live production of On Golden Pond on Sunday.

And no Once and Again tonight. That's why Lynda Shulman can't participate in TV-Turnoff Week. She's leading a campaign to save the smart, ratings-challenged ABC drama.

"I'm 32 years old," says Shulman, who works in the advertising industry and lives in the Boston area. "I've never thought of writing to an executive at a network. The show has touched my life."

Once and Again, in its second season, tells of the turbulent romance of Lily Manning (Sela Ward) and Rick Sammler (Billy Campbell). The divorced parents are moving toward the altar and trying to bring together as a family their four children from previous marriages.

The show, from thirty-something creators Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, has had a more powerful and consistent season than The Practice, The West Wing, The Sopranos or ER.

But Once and Again stands at No. 89 in the ratings season to date, drawing an average 8.5 million viewers each week. No. 1 Survivor pulls in an average 28.7 million.

"I can't figure out why America isn't watching," Shulman says. "It's so different from what's on TV. Other shows need the backdrop of a courtroom or a police station or a hospital. This show relies on the backdrop of life."

The show has drawn powerful stories from Rick's business problems with the weird, dying Miles Drentell (David Clennon) of thirtysomething. And the romantic difficulties of Lily's sister, Judy (Marin Hinkle). And the eating problems of Rick's daughter, 13-year-old Jessie (Evan Rachel Wood). Once and Again offers the most complex portrayals of children on television.

In trying to save the show, Shulman has written a dozen letters to ABC executives, devised a fax campaign and urged other fans to mail in the current TV Guide cover that proclaims Once and Again "the best show you're not watching."

Angela Stockton of Clermont has written two letters to ABC programmer Stu Bloomberg asking him to renew her favorite show for a third season. She also checks the online ABC message board every night and writes episode summaries for a Once and Again Web site.

"I thought at first I couldn't relate to it," Stockton said. "I'm on my first and only marriage. I've raised three teenagers. I like that it's so literate. Where else can you see a teenager say she's reading Bleak House for fun?"

But next week's season finale, in which Rick and Lily contemplate whether they should wed, could be the series' last episode.

ABC programmers have expressed their admiration for the show but also frustration that the ratings are not better against NBC's long-running Law & Order.

The fate of Once and Again is unclear as ABC prepares to announce its fall lineup next month. Strong ratings tonight and next week could make the difference.

Watching tonight, though, will run smack into TV-Turnoff Week, which has a serious and valuable goal.

"It's a vehicle for people to evaluate the role television plays in their lives and decide how much time they want to spend with it," said Jennifer Kurz, spokeswoman for the TV-Turnoff Network, which organizes the week. "While many people do turn off TV entirely after TV-Turnoff Week, that is not the expectation."

The nonprofit group says 6 million people took part last year, and it expects as many to participate this year. The week is directed at children who, on average, will spend more time this year watching television (1,023 hours) than in school (900), according to the TV-Turnoff Network.

Though Once and Again isn't aimed at children, it offers the richest portrayals of them right now on television. And that could be lost if more viewers don't respond tonight.

The fans who support Once and Again have taken the theme of TV-Turnoff Week to heart and evaluated what viewing means to them.

"I think kids should get out and do more," Shulman said. "Television in moderation is a goal that parents should aim for, as long as those parents have their televisions tuned at 10 p.m. Wednesday to ABC."

Once and Again, currently television's finest drama, desperately needs that kind of support.__Orlando Sentinel (April 24, 2001)